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Friday, February 15, 2013

Blog tour stop: Rock my world by Sharisse Coulter

Jenna Jax-Anders hit rock bottom in high school. Or so she thought. From rock star heiress to knocked-up has been, she turned it all around, marrying the punk rock baby daddy love of her life. The perfect Hollywood fairytale. Until the day she walked in on him kissing her best friend.

As she struggles to find herself and redefine the world around her, she faces the challenges of raising her over-achieving teenage daughter, the heartbreak of losing her best friend (backstabbing aside), and emerging from the shadows of two famous last names to find her own identity. Oh, there’s also the tiny issue of her husband’s record label, backed by an anonymous mogul whose morally ambiguous creative direction may ruin them all.

What’s your favorite place in the entire world? Ooh, that’s a tough one. My favorite writing place is the Encinitas public library. It has a view of the ocean, a coffee cart outside, and the perfect cozy chairs for writing. My favorite city is definitely New York, though.

When and why did you begin writing? I really started writing in college, particularly grad school. I’d just been through a really traumatic experience—my boyfriend at the time committed suicide—and I needed a way to work through my grief and find a way to come to terms with it. Writing saved me.

What inspired you to write your first book? ROCK MY WORLD is my first book, and it started with the idea of Jenna and Alex, two of my main characters. They rattled around in my imagination for a couple years aimlessly, until finally, a year after having my son, I was struck by sudden inspiration and knew their story.

Can you tell us about your main character? Sure! Jenna Jax-Anders is the daughter of the legendary rocker, Shawn Jax. She grew up in Los Angeles amongst an elite crowd, of which she reigned as queen bee until she got knocked up her senior year of high school. Stripped of her burgeoning modeling career and social status, she made it through with a little help from her best friend, Airika, and baby daddy, Alex. She married Alex and they had a baby girl, Felicity. From the outside, it looked like she had it all: hot husband, beautiful baby, cute house, trust fund. But cutting her adolescence short meant she never had to make it on her own. She never learned who she was or how to define herself except through her role to others: wife, daughter, mother, best friend. At thirty-four, she has to do what most of us do at eighteen: figure out who she is and what she wants in life.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? If my readers could walk away with one message I would hope that it would be to make the effort to find out who you are. No matter your upbringing or circumstances, in order to be happy, we all have to answer that question, if only for ourselves.

How much of the book is realistic? I think anyone in the music industry will find some familiar anecdotes in that part of the story. And there are probably some who will assume the book is pretty autobiographical, but that would be a mistake. I like to take things from my own life experiences and then warp them to suit my story’s needs.

How important do you think villains are in a story? Villains are wonderfully integral to any story. As much as a protagonist should be likeable, the villain needs to be unlikeable. They are the foil, the heart blood of the story that circulates to make the reader care about the protagonist’s plight. Plus, they’re fun to write.

Do you have any upcoming appearances that you would like to share with us? Yes! I’m touring the country with my husband and our son. We’re calling it A Novel Music Tour (anovelmusictour.com) and we’ll be doing shows featuring original acoustic music from my husband, Lee Coulter (the SiriusXM’s The Coffee House “Discovery of 2011”) and I’ll be signing books and answering questions.

Who or what influenced your writing once you began? The story is based in the music industry and, having spent the last 9 years touring and managing my husband’s music career, I certainly have my fair share of anecdotes. We were going through a particularly difficult period—professionally—when I wrote ROCK MY WORLD and it served as a kind of therapy for me. Mostly though, I have to admit that every day I sat down to write, the characters told me where they needed to go. Hmm, maybe that makes me sounds crazy. Although I guess living in a fictional world is likely to have that effect.

What made you want to be a writer? I have always loved stories. It’s a magical thing to create a world and be able to share it with others. I just wanted to be part of something I love.

Why Writing is a Personal Form of Therapy

by Sharisse Coulter

Anyone who writes either for fun or professionally will find this topic obvious. Most of us probably started out writing in our journals or jotting down random thoughts or rants about our own lives. Rather than speak on behalf of anyone else, I’ll focus on why writing has been my own personal therapy, and how that’s helped my writing get better as well as keep me sane, on a personal level.

Like a child, I want to have some level of control over the world around me when I find myself in situations that make me feel helpless. I may not be able to control things in the real world, but if I sit down to create a story I get to rewrite any narrative I want. I can write a monologue I wish I’d been quick enough to deliver in person, eviscerating someone who wronged me. I can write characters with all the qualities I wish I possessed. I can create a scene where my horrible boss gets what’s coming to him, rather than my thinking evil thoughts while smiling and doing what I’m told. The possibilities are endless and, even better, I’m in total control.

As much as it’s great to be the master of a universe, even a fictional one, there is another, more important component of therapy that writing fulfills: honesty. In order to create a character, I must be able to see the world through their eyes. Good, bad, or anything in between, every character requires reasoning behind their actions. Whether I relate to the character or not, I must explore their perspective in order to write their part of the story. If the story started with a personal need to vent, I still have to write the foe with honesty, and may come to see the world through their eyes. It might not make me take their side, but a little perspective is always healthy.

The other side of writing is the mask. The mask is like an actor’s role: I get to take on a persona and explore emotions without risking pain to myself. I may be too frightened to explore certain emotional topics. I might not be ready to deal with the weight of them on a personal level. But if I create another world and characters outside myself, I can put them through the same emotions without having to become vulnerable. And a funny thing happens when I do: I learn. I learn to see myself, not as an anomaly incapable of dealing with grief, for instance, but as a person, like my character, who lives in a world they don’t control. Things happen. We react. But if we explore those events honestly, even in fiction, we will see our own faults, desires and even strengths in a new way.

With perspective and honesty, I can create any world I want. I can imagine characters that live out my fantasies or who don’t share my weaknesses. I can experience the world in a new way, through them. And when I’m finished, I can look at my own life with new appreciation and hopefully learn the lesson that experience was meant to teach me in the first place.

I would love to hear from you! (I always try to visit your blog back) I love links, so feel free to link to your blog or a post you like. Sorry, but I am award and tag free zone, I do not have the time to return. Comments are reward enough :)

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Welcome!

I am Brandi Kosiner and this is my personal book blog. I am a 30-something stay-at-home mom to two girls. I love going to Disney, playing video and board games with my husband. I love Young Adult books, with a focus on paranormal romance, fantasy, dystopia and contemporary, especially dealing with illnesses, tough issues such as cutting, eating disorders, issues at home, etc.

Feel free to contact me.with any questions or comments. I love to hear from you!

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I am a personal book blogger. I purchase my books for review, get them from a library, an arc tour, from author or publisher for review, but I am NOT PAID for this service. I do it for the love of books.

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